Tend

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Today's warm and sunny. Not only are we Portlanders going mad with glee, but the bees are happy as well. We had to move the hive in October, which was a bit of an adventure. After nightfall, we closed off their entrances using tape, being careful that none of the sticky side was facing them. Then we lifted the hive, put it in the back of our friend's truck, and slowly drove the four miles to our new house. We lifted the hive out of the truck, positioned the hive in its new spot, and hoped they were okay. And while I never really was too worried about them, today they were out and about, coming home with full pollen baskets, their back legs plump with yellow pollen! This means that they are finding sources of pollen and adjusting well to their new location!

I really like the spot that we've decided to place the bees. It's in the back corner of our yard, under a cedar tree. I can sit on the back fence and watch them from one side, and I can also easily access their viewing window. And, from my kitchen window I can see both bee hive and chicken coop.

Speaking of the ladies, they love the new house. Since there's not yet a garden for them to terrorize, they get to go out and play whenever we are home to let them out.

Rejuvenation

Here are recipes for a mini-facial that you can often concoct from your own garden and pantry. I recommend using cucumbers on the eyes while doing the face mask, and if you wanted to extend this process, you could make a medley of lavender, chamomile, and other herbs (perhaps rosemary). Steep this in almost-boiling water and then steam your skin to open the pores for at least 10 minutes. Then proceed to the face mask. Your skin, body, and mind will feel refreshed and rejuvenated.
Enjoy!

Gentle Face Wash

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable glycerin
1 T. pure castile soap
10 drops of favorite essential oil

Apply with sea sponge in circular motion and rinse with warm water.


Herbal Salt Scrub

1/4 cup grapeseed oil or other oil
1/2 cup fine sea salt
1 T. coconut oil
1 T. diced fresh herbs
a few drops of essential oil (optional)

Apply to exfoliate skin after facial cleanser. Substitute sugar for sensitive skin.


Face Mask (great for rejuvenating dried/sun burnt skin)

1 cup natural yogurt
1/2 cup oatmeal

for oily skin: add 1-2 drops lime juice
for dry skin: add 1-2 T. honey

Mix and apply to skin for 10-15 minutes. Rinse.


Chamomile Toner

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
2 T. dried chamomile, crushed
4 cups water

Boil water and then let cool slightly. Add herbs and let steep for 15 minutes, at least. Strain into a jar and keep in fridge for 2 weeks. Apply with cotton balls. Good for oily skin.


Rosemary Toner

1/2 cup chopped fresh rosemary
4 cups water
several drops rosemary essential oil

Follow ingredients above, adding oil and a sprig of rosemary when finished. Great for healing damaged or dry skin. Works for all skin types.

honey man

This summer has been one intense adventure after another, from camping by a glacial stream under Mt. Hood with amazing people and music to an epic trip around the country via Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, Chesapeake City (the apex of the trip--my beautiful sister's wedding), Carlisle, Erie, the St. Croix River, Minneapolis, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower, Montana, Spokane, and then home again; but only briefly, because then we were off to the coast for four days of sunshine, spectacular views, pelicans, cormorants, sea gulls, starfish, sand, surfing, friends, and sunsets (more on this adventure to come), and then a weekend on our friend's boat on the great Columbia River, camping on Government Island--a state park that is only accessible via boat--and soaking in the rare Oregon sun (soaking in a bit too much in my case on Sunday) and again enjoying spectacular views of Mt. Hood.

It's been a summer of travel, of reconnecting with old friends and family, of renewed love, of falling in love with the mountains and the water, of building dreams and setting solid goals--and of course, a summer filled with my garden and reading.

When I got home from the trip, my garden seemed brilliant to my eyes. My friends who watched over it for me had tied up my tomatoes and everything looked lush and spectacular. Still no ripe tomatoes, but I heard yesterday that we have not yet had one day over 90 degrees yet this summer and only seven days in the 80s. Still, my garden grows: for lunch we had a salad of greens, beets, carrots, berries, and cucumber all from the garden, with a tarragon dressing. My herb spiral is lush with mint, oregano, sage, thyme, calendula, and Chinese hyssop. My peppers have many little buds and flowers on them. My tomatoes are green and growing. My artichoke is tall and ripening its 3rd artichoke heart; the sunflowers started blooming today.

The chickens are healthy, although baby has a bald spot from being pecked by the older witches. Poor baby. Still, they get by and we continue to eat eggs from our own backyard. The bees seem healthy and they certainly seem happy in my backyard with the lavender, vegetable and herb blossoms, and blackberry bramble that my neighbor lets grow wild in his untended backyard. However, there is an ant colony that wants to live with the bees, and we are working to fight that off.

The honey man, Allen, came by yesterday. He comes by door-to-door in the summer, carrying plastic bags filled with a delicious amber honey that he sells for about $12. We bought honey from him the first time we met him (before we had our own), and since then, we've often talked to him about beekeeping. He's an odd fellow, always overdressed and looking over heated. He seems far more at ease discussing bees when Brian is around; perhaps Brian is better at putting him at ease. The honey man understands and keeps Langstroth hives, so he's always curious about our top-bar hive. Yesterday, we showed him the hive, and this is when we discovered the ant issue. We wiped away the ants and promised to look inside of the hive today. Then, we gave the honey man a spoonful of our bees' honey, and he thought it was "really, really good." So good that we traded with him for a jar of his. This was high praise coming from the honey man.

Today, Brian and I opened the hive, brushing away ants and just nosing around. It looked as though the bees were doing all right and managing to keep the ants out of their beeswax. We're going to keep on peeking an try to keep that colony away from and off of the hive.

pollen

I have observed honeybees and a female hummingbird feeding off of my collard green flowers in my vegetable garden. I love how covered she is in yellow pollen. I wonder, if I let the collards go to seed, if they will reseed and sprout in random places. I have some random kale starts growing in my garden, and I've let some of them flower as well.

Sunday morning

As I sat down to blog, I witnessed Elijah-kitty, aka slut kitty, get a nice ear rub from some passers-by. Then, a lovely little toddler toddled up my driveway, followed by one of my best friends, her toddler son, and her sister, come to visit the farm.

We fed the chickens seeds and both of the little ones were fearless about letting these dinosaur-esque creatures peck from their hands. Then, after a few minutes of chickens, the boy said, "Bees!" and they made their way over to the bee hive, opening the observation window and staring joyfully at the spider and ants living outside of the hive and the thousands of bees living inside.

As they got ready to leave, my friend said to her son, "Looks like everything's going well on the farm," and I had this moment where I saw my home from the vantage point of these children and remembered when I was a child, going to visit my uncle's dairy farm, chasing barn cats, searching for kittens, and gawking at the calves, and I felt as though my home, that Brian and I have created together, was providing some of that wonder and joy to these children. So I responded, with more meaning than they knew, "Yes, everything's going well on the farm. Thank you for visiting."

the story of the little lost bee: a hero's journey

On Sunday night, a bee flew from one of our shoulders or knees or arms or somewhere up to the light in the kitchen. On Monday, we found the same bee, exhausted, near the kitchen sink, drinking from almost invisible little drops of water. Since it was already after dark, Brian and I fed the bee some honey, dropping little droplets nearby so that she could suck them up (like the bees are doing in the above photo, cleaning the mess I made). She ate hungrily, enough to make me wonder how a little bee could eat so much honey. Eventually, she got full and left the rest of the honey behind. Yesterday, we could not find little bee. Our hope was to catch her during daylight hours and return her to the hive, but instead, we feared she'd died of exhaustion.

But no! Today, when I got home, she flew up and buzzed at me! I gently brushed her into a jar and walked her out to the hive, rather fearing that she could no longer really fly. But as I walked her out, she climbed out of the jar, so that by the time I got her to her home, she was ready to fly out and quickly return.

This is the little bee's hero's tale, of leaving her home, facing obstacles, falling into the abyss (the kitchen drain from which we rescued her), and then finding her way back home again.

how to filter honey from a top-bar hive

First, you want to carefully brush the bees from the honey comb back into the hive. Then, place the bars over a bucket or cut the comb into a bucket. Placing the combs is maybe better, since you may lessen the amount of bees that end up getting stuck in the honey. You can brush them off later but brush off as many as possible immediately. Make sure that your bars are clearly marked and your false back is ready for when you want to close the hive.

When you have the honeycomb ready, you need to remove all of the bees. If the bees have died a vainglorious death, drowning in their honey or staying heroically with the comb, remove them. Then, with your hands or with a potato masher or some other tool, crush the comb and honey. I prefer hands, since it rather forces me to check for bees or other foreign ickies that I might want to remove.

Do so until you have a paste-like substance.

Now, here's the part that takes a wee bit of planning. You need to have a bucket with a spigot or, in our case, a conical fermentor that you can filter the honey into. You will also need a 5-gallon paint-filter bag (aprox. $2.00 for 2 at Lowes) and then some way to attach the bag, be it a giant sieve or the top of a bucket after it's been cut in half with binder clips or clamps.

We used a busted conical fermentor, a giant sieve, and a paint-filter bag. I dumped the crushed wax and honey into the bag that was carefully placed in the sieve and then into the conical fermentor.

And now it sits and filters.

We have aprox. 1 quart of honey. Harvested more today. The bees were on the defensive, poor girls. I have 5 stings and still standing, barely.
The rosemary is in bloom. This is good early season food for them.

First Honey Harvest!

Today, I went outside to find an active hive, hundreds of bees on missions, returning with pollen baskets full of orange pollen. So I spent some time reading about swarm cells, mites, hive management, and so forth, and then I decided I had to go into the messy, messy hive with horribly crooked comb. I knew it wouldn't be pretty, and it wasn't.

The comb was not, as I knew, built along the top bars. Here's a summary of what happened: I went to a class and was told that the first year, you leave the hive alone. There's no management. You may harvest some honey in September. This was not great advice. My bees went renegade, and I made the executive decision, late summer, that it was too late to fix the situation. I would leave them alone until spring.

Well, when I saw them returning home with such a bounty of pollen, I decided that today was spring, and I went in, armed with a chicken tail feather, a bread knife, my bee suit, a large bowl, and a bucket. I started removing bars, brushing away bees with the feather, and cutting out comb; it was all honey and nectar or bare comb. I worked until they were in an absolute tizzy. I don't know how many times I got stung. I noticed that I don't really feel stings until later. I believe maybe three times, as I noticed something on the back of my left calf and on my left arm near the elbow and maybe one other spot. I'm not done. There's still crooked comb, but they were having a conniption, poor girls. I had to relieve them. Today, I didn't use any smoke, but next time, I believe I will have to. Especially since I believe that it would be better if I went in and finished the job tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, I have honey to process and comb to melt into wax. I removed as many bees as I could from the honey. After harvesting comb, a few fly back onto the combs. I really did my best to brush as many off as possible. I might try to melt the wax tonight. I read something about doing it in water and that it would float. Need to read up a bit more. I will be sure to take photos and blog about the processes as I figure them out and try them. So excited to have honey.

 A big day for the chickens as well. The hens went into their dome and clucked away, and I took the little halflings and put them into the outdoor coop. It was the longest they've been outside. I'm not sure how big of a deal scent is with chickens, but the shared territory might be of service later when I have to introduce the younger two to the big mammas. Eventually, I moved them back (babies to basement and hens to coop) because the americauna started squawking like she wanted to lay an egg.

I think I'd like to plant some peas and maybe some kale tomorrow as well as continue the beekeeping mission. Camillas, crocus, and daffodils have all been in bloom for a couple of weeks. Dandelions also starting to appear.

Save the bees!

Sign the petition to block chemical companies from continuing to profit of off toxic chemicals that are threatening the honey bee population! Read more and sign here.

2010 restrospective

New Year's Day seems to be a rather quiet day. Perhaps because so many of us are fighting hangovers from the debauchery of the night before. But there's also a reflective quality in the day. I looked up my resolutions and goals for last year, and it's interesting to reflect on how far I've come in the past year.

For arts and crafts, I wanted to continue knitting and crocheting, which I didn't do. But I did sew: curtains, pillows, tote bags, stuffed animals, yoga mat bags. I had fun with it and I'm still enjoying it, and I'm confident that I will keep it going. I have a long list of projects, including curtains for my bedroom, new turntable curtains, tote bags for friends, and more stuffed animals. Plus, I do want to learn to knit, still, and make hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves. Plus, I became a better photographer this year. And looking back at my photos, I realized that I'm quite hard on myself, but I've done some good work this year.

I went further with my garden/homestead than I'd originally planned, but in many respects I also fell short. I have dried tomatoes, figs, and chanterelles, but nothing canned from my garden. I do have frozen kale and berries, peach jam, apple butter, and green tomato chutney. I have garlic bulbs wintering in stockings in the basement. We have drunk most of my own chamomile, and we haven't bought eggs since June or July. This year, I want to grow even more teas and herbs, more lettuce, peas, carrots, beats, leeks, tomatoes, garlic, etc. My bees need more management, so I will need to take some classes and do some work with them this year that may involve collecting wax and making some candles and finally harvesting some honey. Fingers crossed! My hens are fat and happy, and my garden sleeps under blankets of straw from their coop. My compost is lush and wonderful.

As for career goals, I got my full-time teaching job! At the school that I most wanted to be working at! That's been everything, really, having a job that I can put my heart into and apply my creativity and love of reading and writing and education. I can be organized and analytical and creative and weird. I can sing songs to my freshmen about conjunctions, and I can ask my juniors to create their own class agenda. Time to rev up. Back to work on Monday!

If I were to set some goals for myself for 2011, they would be to grow as an educator and continue my work with rewriting the way we grade and measure our students' progress, to create a book club with a few fellow book-loving friends, to learn to knit, to keep on sewing, and to grow another wonderful garden with happy honey bees and plump egg-laying chickens. Plus, I want to backpack and camp, including biking around the base of Mt. Adams and then summit in a two to three day adventure!

 

Happy new year!

wintering bees

I checked on my bees today, and their population looks healthy. More than I would have expected for early December. I am considering insulating the hive a bit. One reason for that is the fact that I did not move the false back forward.

The bees built a large amount of comb, but they built it crooked, making it impossible for me to go in there. So my game plan is to perhaps add some external insulation around the top and to pray they survive to spring. Then, in late February/early March, I'm going in there with a bread knife. I am going to cut all crooked comb, clean comb off of the bottom, harvest all over-wintered honey, and let the survivors start fresh in spring.

It was due to the crooked comb that I didn't harvest any fall honey. Let them keep it all for winter, and then if they don't make it, I won't have to feel bad about stealing their winter supplies. Plus, I was terrified that if I did try to cut and harvest comb and honey, I would destroy a bunch. So, they have their world as they created it until spring.

 

Here are the bees in the front of the hive behind the observation window. Still quite a few. They look healthy to me, and I could see no signs of mites. There were a couple of ants in the hive, but I've never heard of that being too much of a problem.

blogs, bee, teas, and things

I just discovered two lovely blogs. Tospann has an assortment of random photographs of lovely people, yellow thread and fabric, wine, and tea: a few of my favorite things! The above photo is from Tea For Joy, also a wonderful blog of art and photos with tea themes.

I'm thinking about taking this bee-keeping class. Yes, it's 101, but I feel like I could use a refresher course. Plus, my plans to build some bee-keeper community last September got derailed, so the class would be a way to make some connections. Also, I think that at some point I'd like to try a Langstroth hive, so there's yet another reason for the class. I just hope they're not Langstroth snobs who disparage top-bars and all hives that aren't Langstroth. The hive worlds have difficulties agreeing, somewhat like Republicans and Democrats in our current Congress.

All I want for Christmas is photoshop, I think. Or some sort of photo editing software. I'd like to continue to take photos throughout the winter, but it's rather difficult to take pictures at night with my craptastic flash or perhaps it's my limited knowledge of my camera that's to blame. I'm hoping to get oot and aboot with my camera this weekend, perhaps on a tromp through the woods to hunt for wild mushrooms and some digging in my own garden to plant those garlic and scallion bulbs.

Here's some loveliness from Tospann. It makes me want to sew.

City of Portland to Declare Honey Bee Week

Happy first annual honey bee week! Mayor Sam Adams is going to read this proclamation tonight at the world premier of "Queen of the Sun." Just in time for me, too, because I am worried about my bees and feel that I need some motivation, guidance, and help with them. So, in celebration of honey bee week, I am going to attend the first Tour de Hives next Saturday, 9/27, and hopefully attend the equinox showing of "Queen of the Sun." I'm learning that bee keeping is not something easily done in isolation, and I need some fellow top-bar beekeeping friends to help guide me my first few years. Maybe this week will allow some opportunities to make those face-to-face connections.

more goodies from the garden

My sunflowers are blooming splendidly, and the honeybees love them. And I love them. And the whole world loves them. I no longer work evenings; the summer restaurant job is behind me and a new school year with a full-time, permanent position faces me. So I am sleepily enjoying my garden in the evenings now, which may mean more photos, more naps, reading, eating delicious home-cooked dinners in the dome, and more out-door movie nights (Mr. B built a huge movie screen in the back yard out of plywood).

In addition to the long-awaited blooming of the sunflowers, I am finally about to start harvesting stuff beyond greens. I have squash, mysterious mysterious squash growing, including an almost-ripe zucchini. I have tiny little green beans (at last! at last!). Tomatoes are getting some color, and the peppers are popping. I have my salsa recipe and white vinegar on standby. Plus, I cleared a bunch of bramble to make the harvesting of blackberries easier with hopes for blackberry wine and sorbet and cobbler. We're also getting our second crop of salmon berries, and the berries are plump and sweet. I continue to harvest chamomile every day, and I'm also harvesting nasturtium and marigold seeds.

Here's an orange-fleshed purple smudge tomato starting to show some of its purple smudge.

Here's a ripe tomato that I've lost the name of, but that's okay because I work with the woman who gave me the seedling last spring. But yay, a ripe tomato!

Speaking of tomatoes, I'll soon be harvesting currants as well. Little tiny currant tomatoes have been quite the journey. The plants are quite lovely, the tomatoes are tiny, and everything about this plant took patience. The seeds took so long to germinate that I'd rather given up hope on them, and now I have two lovely currant plants fruiting like crazy. Harvest season is almost upon me!

her labor is a chant

Curious behavior from my bees today. Apparently, they are bearding. Here's what the entrance to the hive looks like today:

The top photograph is a close up of the bees fanning the entrance of the hive with their wings, which they are also doing inside of the hive in order to keep cool. It's possible that the hive doesn't have enough ventilation, although most likely I need not worry as this behavior is common when temperatures are close to 100 (which is the high today, according to the forecast).

It's imperative that the bees have access to water, or they will dehydrate. They also use the water to cool the hive, carrying in the droplets and then fanning them with their wings. When collecting water, the bees need something to stand on so that they won't drown.

These glass pieces work, as do wine corks, stones, branches, oyster shells, pea stones, etc. Bees will return to the same place for water, so it's important to water your bees as regularly as you water your other animals.

Despite the heat, many foragers are about, collecting pollen and water. It's bloom time--perhaps near the end of bloom time, as mid-summer often brings a dearth--and the foragers are currently in love with the flowering trees in my front yard. Any one recognize it? I have yet to identify these trees, but now that they're flowering, my curiosity has spiked.